New Sunspots Appear After Quiet Period

The Sun sported a whole slew of substantial sunspots over the past 11 days (July 1-10, 2014).

This movie and still show the Sun in filtered white light speckled with more and larger sunspots than we have seen in quite some time. Sunspots are darker, cooler regions on the Sun created by intense magnetic fields poking through the surface.

The Sun may have passed its peak level of activity, but it will still be producing many more sunspots and solar storms during the rest of this solar cycle. The still image was taken on July 8 at 22:24 UT. Credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory/NASA.